Dinosaurs and other extinct

The Tyrannosaurus rex family continues to expand with this new species, Lythronax argestes. The new tyrannosaurid shares a common ancestor with T-rex, and while much older, also shares much of the same skull construction. Later tyrannosaurids like T-Rex had larger jaw muscles and binocular vision, a trait Lynthronax also possesses.

Lythronax lived on Laramidia, along the western shores of the great seaway that separated North America; this landmass hosted a vast array of unique dinosaur species and served as the crucible of evolution for iconic dinosaur groups such as the horned and duck billed dinosaurs.

As noted by American palaeontologist Tom Holtz of the University of Maryland, “This new discovery also supports the idea that the giant thick-toothed Asian tyrants Zhuchengtyrannus and Tarbosaurus were immigrants from North America rather than their own Asian line, because they share a common origin with Lythronax and Tyrannosaurus.”

The evolutionary path of the tyrannosaurids has been a subject of debate, but there has been a batch of new species in the past decade or so that have helped paint a fuller picture of ancient life. And I suspect there are much more discoveries just waiting to be found and written up.

And more tyrannosaurids mean more dinosaurs to be brought back to life in films to eat people!

Back as in fossils of a new platypus species, that is! Obdurodon tharalkooschild is being nicknamed Godzilla Platypus due to the large size of the extinct platypus, 1 meter long. This makes it twice as long as living platypi, and longer than any known extinct platypus species.

Even more remarkable, all this information about Obdurodon tharalkooschild comes from just one molar. Now, modern platypus do not have teeth, but other extinct species do, including Obdurdon dicksoni, and from examining the size of the molars and extrapolating, the paleontologists were able to come up with Obdurodon tharalkooschild‘s size estimate. It is believed that O. tharalkooschild lived between 5 million and 15 million years ago, but a more exact time period cannot be determined at this time.

The structure of the tooth suggests the animal was capable of eating not only the small insects and crayfish on which modern platypuses dine, but also small vertebrates such as certain fish and amphibians, and even small turtles, the team reports.

That expanded diet is also interesting news, and puts a new perspective in what ecological niche older platypus species served.

The full paper will be published in the November 12th issue of Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

It’s that time again where I throw a bunch of links at you and you must click them all, Pokemon! Also some news bits that didn’t make the cut into getting their own posts dues to lazines— I mean, because I was busy. Yeah, that’s the ticket! So let’s get on with it!!!

**Names are attached to the big screen version of Divergent, yet another Young Adult Dystopian Future novel turned film. Shailene Woodley is already attached to star, and now Maggie Q, Zoe Kravitz and Ansel Elgort are attached. In this Young Adult Dystopian Future, society is divided into factions based on traits like bravery. Basically the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter became Evil Overlord. So, of course, there is a love story between factions and rebellions and all that junk. Neil Burger is directing.

**Horrible Bosses 2is on the way. Perhaps this go-around will have something funny beyond Motherfucker Jones? Speaking of which, Motherfucker Jones is not yet confirmed as returning, but he better be!

**Here is a 12 minute proof of concept short for Land of Giants, a steampunk martial arts film starring Mathis Landwehr. It’s another “make a short film to get funding to make a real film” film:

After the storm reduced our world to ruins, the Giants came to us, to punish those who would ever again lay their hands on the magic called “Electricity”.

A long time ago Crutch (Mathis Landwehr) challenged the Giants’ anger. His destroyed knee won’t let him forget the day, they took everything from him. So he ventured out to hunt and kill them.

**Debug is a future-set scifi thriller where six computer hackers sent to debug old computers on an abandoned space freighter must battle an AI that’s gone loopy. Killer loopy. Jeananne Goossen, Jason Momoa, Adam Butcher, Kjartan Hewitt, Sidney Leeder, Jaydn Wong, and Adrian Holmes. David Hewlett directs and Debug is due out in 2014.

**If you want to see some production photos of Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel, click away!

**People in China are freaking out because former Category III star Diana Pang Dan (Erotic Ghost Story – Perfect Match and Rape Trap) is going to become a politician. Of course, America would freak out as well.

**If you thought Jack the Giant Slayer sucked, maybe you will like Asylum’s Jack the Giant Killer, where the giants are actual monsters! Jane March and Ben Cross star. Mark Atkins writes and directs.

**Disney thinks the world needs yet another live-action Beauty and the Beast movie. Right, Beastly?

Disney is calling this film The Beast, and considering the subject matter of Trance–an art auctioneer is pummeled so badly by his criminal cohorts that a hypnotherapist is needed to coax out the memories of where he hid a priceless painting–indicates that this revisionist take on Beauty and the Beast could be a bit on the dark side.

No word on who will play Hank McCoy.

**Actress Charlie Yeung Choi-Nei has moved into writing/directing with the upcoming film Christmas Rose (聖誕玫瑰). Yeung spent five years writing the legal thriller, the film is about a sexual harassment case that quickly balloons out of control. Aaron Kwok is a former defense attorney turned prosecutor who helps handicapped piano teacher Jing (Kwai Lun Mei) sue her doctor Zhou (Chang Chen) for harassing her during a checkup. But Zhou is a respected physician and his defense attorney is Aaron Kwok’s replacement at his old firm. The trailer is here

**Giant camel bones belonging to a species of Paracamelus have been found in Northern Canada, the bones being identified due to collagen fingerprinting the collagen on the bones. The size of the bones show the species was 30% bigger than modern camels. Paracamelus is a type of ancient dromedary (one hump.) This is the first evidence of a High Arctic camel, though scientists have long suspected that camels had trades associated with arctic adaptation.
Via here and hereImage via

**Once Jon Chu gets done “post-converting” GI Joe Retaliation (or whatever the fuck they’re really doing to it), he’ll be helming the adaptation of the Young Adult novel Matched by Ally Condie. It’s one of those books where in a dystopian future everyone is told what to do and one woman fights the system and rejects her arraigned marriage to do what she wants. Dystopian futures are so hot right now!

**Neil Burger will direct Shailene Woodley in Divergent, based on the Young Adult novel by Veronica Roth. Shailene Woodley is Beatrice Prior, and Evan Daugherty wrote the screenplay. It’s one of those books where in a dystopian future everyone is divided into a few factions who follow strict rules and one woman fights the system and rejects the rules to do what she wants. Dystopian futures are so hot right now!

**Marie Lu’s YA novel Legend is also headed to the big screen, with Andrew Barrer and Gabe Ferrari writing the script and Jonathan Levine directing. It’s one of those books where in a dystopian future a teenage boy Robin Hood causes trouble and a teenage girl cop hunts him down and fights the system by falling in love with him. Dystopian futures are so hot right now!

**Veronica Rossi’s YA novel Under the Never Sky has….guess what….been optioned for the big screen! It’s one of those books where in a dystopian future a teenage girl is kicked out of her domed city for fighting the syste— setting fires??!!? and has to team up with a teenage savage to avoid cannibals. Dystopian futures are so hot right now!

**Source Code and Moon director Duncan Jones will now direct the Warcraft movie, which means the Warcraft movie will now be awesome.

**

Trailer for Men in Suits, a documentary about performers in rubber monster suits. Lots more info here.

Kasra Farahani’s scifi short Noon joins the ever-increasing list of shorts that have been optioned for movies. There have been enough of these that it’s a trend. So get off your lazy butt and make a scifi short!!!

**We already got dueling Die Hard in the White House flicks this year, but next year we’ll have dueling Hercules movies! Aside from the Dwayne Johnson/Brett Ratner flick, Renny Harlin is making his own, which will be more Gladiator than super hero. Hercules 3D will presumably be in 3D.

**Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos is the awesome ancestor to crocodiles that needs its own SyFy flick, stat! I can just see her now, fighting the system to eat the man she loves. Metriorhynchid super-predators are so hot right now! Via

Until next time, remember there are more Baby Geniuses films coming! A lot more!

Jurassic Park 4 is nothing more than a date on a Facebook page, but that hasn’t stopped the dumbest petition in Jurassic Park history from showing up on the White House site:

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:Require Jurassic Park 4 to film with practical effects and animatronic dinosaurs
America was built on determination and imagination and dreams. We innovate, we create opportunity, we inspire. But our country has fallin into a pit of darkness. Depression and acceptance, day after day after day. We have learned the truth about despair. Hope. But we cannot climb to the light on our own. Like shipwrecked men turning to seawater from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying.

In 2014 we will be given Jurassic Park 4, and unless strict action is taken, we will see more of the same, cgi dinosaurs. We cannot let this pass, not again. We need a reminder of what genuine hard work can accomplish. We need to give our children the same gift we were given twenty years ago – what it means to be an American. We mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger darling

Yeesh! I don’t know what’s worse, the ignorance that there was CGI in the original Jurassic Park, the dumb “official” language the paragraphs use to sound important, or the insinuation that CGI artists are lazy. Bleh.

But then again, maybe we can get a cool response like this one!!!:

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TO
Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For
By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
* The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
* The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
* Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
However, look carefully (here’s how) and you’ll notice something already floating in the sky — that’s no Moon, it’s a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that’s helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts — American, Russian, and Canadian — living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We’ve also got two robot science labs — one wielding a laser — roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Scientists have announce they have discovered a fossil species known as Megapiranha paranensis, a three-foot long ancestor to modern piranhas. Little do they know that I, Dr. Mobusu, am starting research today to bring these ancient fish back to life as my monster pets before they wind up as the title of some craptacular SciFi Channel movie! Soon, my school of Megapiranha will devour all Megalodons, Megacondas, Megafaults, Mega Sharks, and Megatrons! There will be no safe Mega left in the world! MuHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!

If you thought piranhas were scary, be glad Megapiranha is no longer around.

Megapiranha was up to 3 feet long (1 meter) – a fish-beast four times as big as piranhas living today, studies of its jawbones indicate. It lived about 8 million to 10 million years ago and might have been quite comfortable stalking cartoon animals in an “Ice Age” movie.

….
Now a newly uncovered jawbone of a transition species ties all these teeth together. Named Megapiranha paranensis, this previously unknown fossil fish bridges the evolutionary gap between flesh-eating piranhas and their plant-eating cousins.

Here’s what’s known:

Present-day piranhas have a single row of triangular teeth, like the blade on a saw, explained the researchers. Pacu have two rows of square teeth, presumably for crushing fruits and seeds.

“In modern piranhas the teeth are arranged in a single file,” said Wasila Dahdul, a visiting scientist at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina. “But in the relatives of piranhas – which tend to be herbivorous fishes – the teeth are in two rows.”

The new fossil shows an intermediate pattern: teeth in a zig-zag row. This suggests that the two rows in pacu were compressed to form a single row in piranhas. “It almost looks like the teeth are migrating from the second row into the first row,” said John Lundberg, curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and a co-author of a study of the jawbone.